Other Fiction Dickens, Charles: The Old Curiosity Shop (Illustrated). v7. 25 Mar 2010

[HarryT]

From Amazon:

A bestseller that gripped the nation when it was first published, "The Old Curiosity Shop" is a novel of sharp contrasts: of life and death, youth and age, desire and innocence, humour and villainy. For the character of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, Dickens drew on a tragedy in his own life, the death at the age of 17 of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth. Five years later he wrote, "the desire to be buried next her is as strong upon me now ... and I know (for I don't think there ever was love like that I bear her) that it will never diminish."

The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters--the eloquent ne-er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness"; the mannish lawyer Sally Brass; Quilp's brow-beaten mother-in-law, and Quilp himself, the lustful, vengeful dwarf, whose demonic energy makes a vivid counterpoint to Nell's purity.

The edition contains all the original black and white illustrations (hence the rather large size of the book).

Enjoy!

EDIT: 15 Dec 07

Recreated the book, adding the original illustrations and preserving dashes, etc. Uploaded v2.

EDIT: 24 Dec 07

Replaced words in capitals by italics as appropriate, to match the printed book. Uploaded v3.

EDIT: 20 Mar 08

Recreated the book to sort out a problem with incorrect paragraph graph. Comparing against the printed book I noticed that two illustrations were missing, so I've scanned these and added them to the book. Uploaded v4.

EDIT: 12 Mar 09

Spent the last two months painstakingly proof-reading the book against the "Oxford Illustrated Dickens" edition. Two entire double-pages of text were missing from the book, as well as literally thousands of other minor errors and omissions. I would say that the book is probably now pretty much as good as it's going to get, although I would obviously welcome being informed of any remaining errors. Added a new cover image, too, and uploaded v5.

EDIT: 11 Jun 09

MR user "dynabook" has kindly sent me details of several dozen errors (primarily in punctuation) which I'd overlooked. Corrected all these, and uploaded a new v6.

EDIT: 25 Mar 10

Replaced the cover image for consistency with the rest of my Dickens series. No change to the text. Uploaded v7.


Previous download count: 131

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.

[HarryT]

Replaced the cover image for consistency with the rest of my Dickens series. No change to the text. Uploaded v7.